Futuristic Concept Hotels

We live in a dynamic world. In this fast moving world, only those will thrive who will out-power others. The designers of the hotels of tomorrow, perhaps, have kept this in mind while creating futuristic concept hotels to lure the global nomads. Futuristic concept hotels, fully equipped with hi-technology are not exceptional. Based on the science, novels, and fiction stories, will hopefully providing the luxurious environment to their customers.
Futuristic concept hotels in the world, which are a living proof of the remarkable change we are witnessing.

The Inflatable Space Hotel, Russia

Designed by Bigelow Aerospace, Las Vegas, The Inflatable Space Hotel is expected to be completed by 2015. It would be a Commercial Space Station Skywalker and inflatable hotel that will be located – else where – In space! It will be full fully equipped for other future technology such as moon cruisers, space yachts and an estimated $1 million a night price tag. The preliminary phase launched in 2007, with a few cockroaches and several Mexican jumping beans, the first guests to skitter around a 4-metre-wide watermelon-shaped hostelry, 550 kilometres above Earth.

Aeroscraft: The flying luxury hotel of tomorrow

Designed by Worldwide Aeros Corporation, it is a flying hotel, hangs in air with 14 million cubic feet of helium which equal to two football fields. It would be able to accommodate 250 passengers. It will be travelling at a speed of 174 miles per hour. The airship would provide tourists with a host of amenities including a casino, restaurants, and staterooms. It simply means that, this hotel would be similar to a cruise liner in the air.

The Apeiron Island Hotel Dubai

The Apeiron Island Hotel is a concept hotel of 7 stars in Dubai. If the plans ever get funding, The Apeiron Hotel would be the second self awarded 7 star hotel to be built in Dubai. The futuristic hotel includes a private lagoon, beaches, restaurants, cinemas, shopping, an art gallery, spas, and conference facilities with a jungle theme in the 350 luxury apartment suites.

The Lunatic Hotel Moon

The Lunatic Hotel Moon is actually futuristic because it is expected to be completed in 2050. Water and steel will have to be launched to the moon for this exercise. The designer, Hans-Jurgen Rombaut from Rotterdam, says that, the existing minerals and ore can comfortably supply most of the building materials. In specially designed towers, guests will experience low gravity.

Hydropolis Dubai

The Hydropolis Underwater Hotel and Resort is a proposed to be the world’s first underwater luxury resort in Dubai. The hotel design was created by Joachim Hauser and Professor Roland Dieterle, and is planned to be composed of three segments: a land station, a connecting train, and the underwater hotel. A self acclaimed 10 star hotel will be located 66 feet below sea level inthe Persian Gulf. It will cost an estimated $300 million.

Hotel Pods

Hotel Pods – A Holiday Odyssey – Fully foldable and transportable hotel. The idea of the pod hotels is that it will contain foldable pods built on stilts offering all of the luxurious amenities of a traditional hotel. In addition, guests can actually design their own rooms.

The Diamond Ring Hotel

Also known as Voyager V1, the Diamond Ring Hotel located in Abu Dhabi. There is very little information available about hotel, but in the shape 185 metre ferris wheel, it is a hotel of the future.

Waterworld Hotel

Waterworld hotel is located in lagoon in Songjiang, China. It was designed by Atkin’s Architecture Group, which won the first prize award of last year’s in an international design competition. The 400 bed resort hotel is uniquely constructed within the natural elements of the quarry. Underwater public areas and guest rooms add to the uniqueness, but the resort also boasts cafes, restaurants and sporting facilities. It also includes bungee jumping and rock climbing

Different Levels of #Happiness

Happiness is not just one feeling, just look in any thesaurus. Have you noticed that each synonym reveals different levels of happiness? It's useful to know these when we're learning #howtobehappy. Which 'happy' are we aiming for?
 

Starting from the bottom
Here is my list of the different levels of #happiness. I'm starting with the lowest level of happiness, that hopefully we've all experienced some time in our lives.
•    Well being is a state of being comfortable, healthy and happy,
•    satisfaction is the pleasure derived from the fulfillment of our wishes, expectations, or needs,
•    tranquility is being free from disturbance, being calm,
•    whilst contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction,
•    and serenity is the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.
 

Is this Normal for you?
Having read that list, do you think, "Hmm, I wish I felt like that!" or maybe "Hey, that's not what I call happiness!" It's interesting that one person's normal level of happiness is on another person's wish list. Or are you thinking that these states of being are so normal and commonplace that you didn't consider them to be states of happiness at all?
 

Moving Higher
Well, the list continues and I'm taking the happiness up a notch with these feelings. Take a look and see if you ever feel these emotions?
•    pleasure can be described as a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment,
•    when you're in good spirits you're feeling cheerful,
•    and cheerfulness is being noticeably happy and optimistic,
•    lightheartedness and gaiety are both cheerful and carefree,
•    merriment is gaiety mixed with fun,
•    and gladness is being happy about good fortune,
•    jollity is being cheerful,
•    whilst joviality is being cheerful and friendly.
So, have you noticed the levels of happiness getting more jolly? Well they get even jollier in this next section.
 

Higher Still
•    joy is the feeling, and joyfulness is the expression of great pleasure and happiness,
•    enjoyment is to take delight or pleasure in something,
•    and delight is a feeling of great pleasure,
•    whilst glee is a great delight.
I do hope you've felt some of those emotions at some time in your life. Now, lets move on to happy emotions that contain more excitement.
 

Feeling Excitement
•    exuberance is being filled with a lively energy and excitement,
•    exhilaration is feeling very happy, animated, or elated,
•    and elation is great happiness and exhilaration,
•    jubilation is a feeling of great happiness and triumph,
•    and felicity is a feeling of intense happiness,
Have you ever felt those emotions? I doubt if anyone feels like this all the time. They are emotions we feel at certain stages and events in our lives like getting married, going on holiday or giving birth.
 

The Icing on the Cake
And now we're going up the top! Or, as some may say, over the top.
•    ecstasy is an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement,
•    delirium is wild excitement or ecstasy,
•    and rapture is a feeling of intense pleasure or joy,
•    blissfulness is being extremely happy and full of joy,
•    euphoria is a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness
•    whilst transports of delight is totally being carried away by euphoria,
•    and bliss is perfect happiness; great joy; a state of spiritual blessedness (typically that reached after death!)
So there we have them: the different levels of happiness. As we get further up the levels, the emotions are not something we sustain for long. For those people who are basically happy, these emotions are the icing on the cake.

Most Cruel Rulers Ever

Throughout the history of mankind there have been many cruel rulers that use terror to gain control of public. They rule with an iron fist and an unrelenting thirst for power and recognition. Unfortunately for society there was too many for them all to fit on the list, so here’s the worst of the worst.

Idi Amin Dada

One of the most cruel rulers ever, Idi Amin Dada was the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King’s African Rifles in 1946, Amin held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military coup of January 1971, deposing Milton Obote. He later promoted himself to Field Marshal while he was the head of state. His rule was characterized by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extra judicial killings and the expulsion of Indians from Uganda. The estimates range of people killed from 80,000 to 500,000.
He hate Europeans “We Africans used to carry Europeans, but now Europeans are carrying us. We are now the masters … They came from Britian and wanted to show that I really have power in my country.” Amin was eventually overthrown, but until his death, he held that Uganda needed him and he never expressed remorse for the abuses of his regime. On 20 July 2003, died at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from kidney failure.

Attila The Hun

Attila (Attila the Hun), was the ruler of the Huns from 434 to 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. He was considered as one of the history`s greatest villains. In much of Western Europe, he is remembered as the epitome of cruelty and rapacity. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orleans) before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.
Subsequently he invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans. He returned in 452 to claim his marriage to Honoria anew, invading and ravaging Italy along the way. Attila drowned in his own blood on his wedding night. He died in the early months of 453.

#ArmenianGenocide

#ArmenianGenocide it happened! For all those who are in denial...
We remember. We will never forget!

An Apple a Day, and Other Myths

 A trip to almost any bookstore or a cruise around the Internet might leave the impression that avoiding cancer is mostly a matter of watching what you eat. One source after another promotes the protective powers of “superfoods,” rich in antioxidants and other phytochemicals, or advises readers to emulate the diets of Chinese peasants or Paleolithic cave dwellers.
But there is a yawning divide between this nutritional folklore and science. During the last two decades the connection between the foods we eat and the #cellularanarchy called #cancer has been unraveling string by string.
This month at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, a mammoth event that drew more than 18,500 researchers and other professionals here, the latest results about diet and cancer were relegated to a single poster session and a few scattered presentations. There were new hints that coffee may lower the risk of some cancers and more about the possible benefits of vitamin D. Beyond that there wasn’t much to say.
In the opening plenary session, Dr. Walter C. Willett, a Harvard epidemiologist who has spent many years studying #cancer and nutrition, sounded almost rueful as he gave a status report. Whatever is true for other diseases, when it comes to cancer there was little evidence that fruits and vegetables are protective or that fatty foods are bad.
About all that can be said with any assurance is that controlling obesity is important, as it also is for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and other threats to life. Avoiding an excess of alcohol has clear benefits. But unless a person is seriously malnourished, the influence of specific foods is so weak that the signal is easily swamped by noise.

Earth Day - April 22, 2014

Today is #EarthDay and so this one is easy. Today, do something - anything - to improve the condition of the planet. Recycle or pick up garbage lying by the side of the road or monitor your water usage. Turn off faucets when you brush your teeth and don’t run your shower for five minutes before getting in. Try to incorporate one small act of kindness to the earth into every day and soon you will be making a huge difference. Let me be the first to thank you for your excellent efforts.

Researchers #CloneCells From Two Elder Men

After years of failed attempts, researchers have successfully generated stem cells from adults. The process could provide a new way for scientists to generate healthy replacements for diseased or damaged cells in patients. After years of failed attempts, researchers have finally generated stem cells from adults using the same cloning technique that produced Dolly the sheep in 1996.
A previous claim that Korean investigators had succeeded in the feat turned out to be fraudulent. Then last year, a group at Oregon Health & Science University generated stem cells using the Dolly technique, but with cells from fetuses and infants.
In this case, cells from a 35-year-old man and a 75-year-old man were used to generate two separate lines of stem cells. The process, known as nuclear transfer, involves taking the DNA from a donor and inserting it into an egg that has been stripped of its DNA. The resulting hybrid is stimulated to fuse and start dividing; after a few days the “embryo” creates a lining of stem cells that are destined to develop into all of the cells and tissues in the human body. Researchers extract these cells and grow them in the lab, where they are treated with the appropriate growth factors and other agents to develop into specific types of cells, like neurons, muscle, or insulin-producing cells.
Reporting in the journal Cell Stem Cell, Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology, and his colleagues found that tweaking the Oregon team’s process was the key to success with reprogramming the older cells. Like the earlier team, Lanza’s group used caffeine to prevent the fused egg from dividing prematurely. Rather than leaving the egg with its newly introduced DNA for 30 minutes before activating the dividing stage, they let the eggs rest for about two hours. This gave the DNA enough time to acclimate to its new environment and interact with the egg’s development factors, which erased each of the donor cell’s existing history and reprogrammed it to act like a brand new cell in an embryo. 

The team, which included an international group of stem cell scientists, used 77 eggs from four different donors. They tested their new method by waiting for 30 minutes before activating 38 of the resulting embryos, and waiting two hours before triggering 39 of them. None of the 38 developed into the next stage, while two of the embryos getting extended time did. “There is a massive molecular change occurring. You are taking a fully differentiated cell, and you need to have the egg do its magic,” says Lanza. “You need to extend the reprogramming time before you can force the cell to divide.”  

While a 5% efficiency may not seem laudable, Lanza says that it’s not so bad given that the stem cells appear to have had their genetic history completely erased and returned to that of a blank slate. “This procedure works well, and works with adult cells,” says Lanza.
The results also teach stem cell scientists some important lessons. First, that the nuclear transfer method that the Oregon team used is valid, and that with some changes it can be replicated using older adult cells. “It looks like the protocols we described are real, they are universal, they work in different hands, in different labs and with different cells,” says Shoukhrat Mitalopov, director of the center for embryonic cell and gene therapy at Oregon Health & Science University, and lead investigator of that study.
Second, the findings confirm that the key factor in making nuclear transfer work with human cells is not the age of the donor cell, as some experts have argued, but the quality of the donor egg. “No matter how much you tweak the protocols or optimize them, it looks like the major player in efficiency is the individual egg quality,” says Mitalipov. He notes that all of his stem cell lines came from the same egg donor. The two cell lines described by Lanza’s group also came from one egg donor.
This latest success should reignite the debate over which reprogramming method generates the most reliable, and potentially useful, stem cells for eventually treating patients. The nuclear transfer method may join two other ways of making stem cells: one, developed by James Thomson in 1998, relied on extracting them from days-old embryos left over from IVF, and another, developed by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 (and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize), bypassed the egg and embryo completely, allowing researchers to make stem cells by modifying an adult’s cells using a mixture of just four genes.
Each method has it advantages and risks, however. IVF embryos are difficult to come by, since they require permission from couples to be used for stem cells research, and they may not be genetically matched to patients who might benefit from cells they generate.
While so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, avoid the need for embryos and could be matched to patients, some studies suggest that the process may not completely reprogram cells, leaving populations of some partially reprogrammed ones in the mix. In addition, iPS cells aren’t useful for treating mitochondrial diseases, which result from mutations in the cell’s energy factories, which have their own DNA outside of the cell’s DNA in the nucleus. If a cell with a mitochondrial mutation is reprogrammed using the iPS technique, any mutations would be reprogrammed as well.

Nuclear transfer, however, could treat these disorders since it involves an egg that provides its own, healthy mitochondria. But the process requires a good supply of eggs, which have to be donated by healthy volunteers. That raises ethical concerns since the technique could produce human clones. That’s why research on nuclear transfer is not funded by the federal government, and scientists know less about these cells and their potential than they do about iPS cells. “They have become kind of like cursed cells,” says Mitalipov of the stem cells generated through nuclear transfer. “But we clearly need to understand more about them.”
For patients who might one day benefit from stem cell-based therapies, that understanding could mean the difference between life and death, which is why the latest findings are potentially significant. “We have another way to skin the cat,” Lanza says. “The hope is that iPS cells work out, but for the future application of stem cell therapies to treating disease, it’s good knowing there is another way to make stem cells should we need to.”

Butter and Fatty Acids May not be as Unhealthy as Previously Thought

Using olive oil instead of butter when cooking a meal may not lower heart risk, according to new research by the British Heart Foundation.

Researchers at the BHF say that there is no evidence that changing the type of fat you eat from "bad" saturated fat to "healthier" fatty acids will cut heart risk. They came to the conclusion after reviewing data from 72 studies, spanning more than 600,000 participants.

Consumers have been widely encouraged to eating unsaturated fats such as olive and sunflower oils. But the research, led by scientists at Cambridge and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found no evidence to support this. The research found that saturated fat, whether measured in the diet or in the bloodstream, was not linked to coronary disease risk, and that there was no such thing as "healthy" fat intake.

Researchers stressed however that the study findings did not mean it was fine to eat lots of cheese, pies and cakes. Eating too much saturated fat can still increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, which can increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Trans fats are also associated with risk of heart diseases. These artificial fats, found in many processed food items and margarine spreads, should continue to be regulated and avoided, the study authors say.

Doctor Rajiv Chowdhury, the study's lead researcher, told the BBC that the findings could potentially stimulate new lines of scientific inquiry and current nutritional guidelines.

The British Heart Foundation stressed that the findings do not change the advice that eating too much fat is harmful for the heart.

"This research is not saying that you can eat as much fat as you like," Jeremy Pearson, an associate medical director at the organisation told the BBC. "Too much fat is bad for you. But, sadly, this analysis suggests there isn't enough evidence to say that a diet rich in polyunsaturated fats, but low in saturated fats, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Alongside taking any necessary medication, the best way to stay heart healthy is to stop smoking, stay active, and ensure our whole diet is healthy - and this means considering not only the fats in our diet but also our intake of salt, sugar and fruit and vegetables," he said.

The prevalence of high levels of cholesterol is highest in the European region (54% for both sexes), according to the World Health Organisation, followed by the Americas (48% for both sexes).

According to a 2011 report by the Cardiovascular Resource Group, 133.3 million people in the five biggest EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK) suffer from too much bad cholesterol in the blood, comparable to the overall number in the United States (135.1 million people). Statistics in the report show that the numbers have grown steadily. At the same time, it is estimated that 25 million people in the United States are unaware that their level of bad cholesterol is too high, according to the report.

Russia won’t Import #GMOs, Has "Enough Space and Opportunities to Produce Organic Food"

(NaturalNews) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has announced that Russia will not import any more GMO food products or seeds.
The Russian government has taken a bold stand against genetically altered food ingredients, believing there is no need for them in their country. Medvedev also declared that Russia has "enough space and opportunities to produce organic food," and they will no longer be encouraging the production of GMOs.
He commented, "If the Americans like to eat GMO products, let them eat it then. We don't need to do that."
Russian Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Fydorov agrees, saying that Russia should remain free of genetically modified products to prevent its citizens from being poisoned.
The importation ban, issued with the consent of the Russian parliament, was initiated in late February. As the orders trickle down, a widespread monitoring effort will be placed over the Russian agricultural sector. Imports will be heavily inspected to assure that GMOs aren't entering the country. This new all-out ban strengthens very restrictive policies already put in place. Current Russian law requires producers to label any product containing GMOs in excess of 0.9 percent of the product.
GMOs to remain banned until a standard of control is established proving human health safety
Awareness of GMOs in the food supply is growing. In late 2013, Russia created a Unified State Register that documents various genetically modified plants. The realization that they are untested for their effects on human health and the environment is making many concerned around the globe.
Furthermore, labeling GMOs is always a shadowy issue; the biotech industry likes to keep people in the dark, as not to raise suspicion. Scientific studies like the Seralini study may show the dangers that GMOs pose to animals (inciting tumors) but these studies are often swept under the rug and discredited by the biotech industry and propagandists.
However, Russia's State Duma's Agriculture Committee has suggested that GMOs remain banned until scientists establish a working system of control to establish the effects of GMOs on human health and the environment. With no standards of safety to go by, GMOs are pushed into agriculture as experimental science. Breeding, growing and cross-pollinating these genetic alterations into the natural world changes animals, plants, and microorganisms in startling ways. There are no controls to observe the long-term effects. Russia, though, is putting their foot down as a nation, prohibiting GMOs until safety controls are established and proven.
Irina Ermakova, the Vice President of Russia's National Association for Genetic Safety, stated that it's necessary to ban GMOs, taking the advice of prominent Russian scientists who declared that a moratorium should be imposed on GMOs for at least ten years.
Ermakova stated, "While GMOs will be prohibited, we can plan experiments, tests, or maybe even new methods of research could be developed. It has been proven that not only in Russia, but also in many other countries in the world, GMOs are dangerous. Methods of obtaining the GMOs are not perfect, therefore, at this stage, all GMOs are dangerous. Consumption and use of GMOs obtained in such way can lead to tumors, cancers and obesity among animals. Bio-technologies certainly should be developed, but GMOs should be stopped. We should stop it from spreading."

Scientists Find an #EarthTwin

An artist's concept of Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size planet found in the habitable zone, a range of distances from a star where liquid water could pool on an orbiting planet's surface. Credit NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-CalTech
It is a bit bigger and somewhat colder, but a planet circling a star 500 light-years away is otherwise the closest match of our home world discovered so far, astronomers announced on Thursday.
The planet, known as Kepler 186f, named after NASA’s Kepler planet-finding mission, which detected it, has a diameter of 8,700 miles, 10 percent wider than Earth, and its orbit lies within the “Goldilocks zone” of its star, Kepler 186 — not too hot, not too cold, where temperatures could allow for liquid water to flow at the surface, making it potentially hospitable for life.
“Kepler 186f is the first validated, Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star,” Elisa V. Quintana of the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., said at a news conference on Thursday. “It has the right size and is at the right distance to have properties similar to our home planet.”
Dr. Quintana is the lead author of a scientific paper describing the findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science. Kepler 186f is the latest planet to be sifted out of the voluminous data collected by Kepler, which kept watch over 150,000 stars, looking for slight drops in brightness when a planet passed in front.
This follows the announcement last year that another star, Kepler 62, has two planets in its habitable zone, but those two were “super Earths,” with masses probably several times that of Earth. The gravity of those planets might be strong enough to pull in helium and hydrogen gases, making them more like mini-Neptunes than large Earths.
With its smaller size, Kepler 186f is more likely to have an Earth-like rocky surface, another step in astronomers’ quest for what might be called Earth 2.0.
“It’s a progression,” said another member of the discovery team, Thomas S. Barclay of the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. “This planet really reminds us of Earth.”
The researchers speculate that it is made of the same stuff as Earth — iron, rock, ice, liquid water, although the relative amounts could be very different.
The gravity on Kepler 186f, too, is likely to be roughly the same as Earth’s. “You could far more easily imagine someone being able to go there and walk around on the surface,” Stephen Kane, an astronomer at San Francisco State University and another member of the research team, said in an interview.
Kepler 186f is not a perfect replica, however. It is closer to its star — a red dwarf that is smaller, cooler and fainter than our sun — than the Earth is to its; its year, the time to complete one orbit, is 130 days, not 365. It is also at the outer edge of the habitable zone, receiving less warmth, so perhaps more of its surface would freeze.
“Perhaps it’s more of an Earth cousin than an Earth twin,” Dr. Barclay said.
On the other hand, with its greater mass, Kepler 186f could conceivably have a thicker, insulating atmosphere to compensate. Red dwarfs emit more of their light at the longer infrared wavelengths, which would be more readily absorbed and trapped by ice and gases like water vapor and carbon dioxide.
“This makes the planet more efficient at absorbing energy from its star to avoid freezing over,” said Victoria Meadows, an astrobiologist and planetary astronomer at the University of Washington. “Which is why this planet is still considered potentially habitable, as long as it has a dense enough atmosphere, even though it receives less light from its star than Mars does from our sun.”
She added, “It’s fun to note that if the planet is habitable, photosynthesis may be possible.”
At the wavelengths that plants need, Kepler 186f receives only about a sixth as much light as Earth does, but “there are plenty of Earth plants that would be quite happy with that,” Dr. Meadows said.
Astronomers cannot tell the exact age of the star, but such dwarfs are the longest-lived stars in the universe. If Kepler 186f is habitable, life would have had plenty of time — billions of years — to take hold.
But speculation about the planet will remain speculation for a long time, if not forever. The Kepler measurements indicated only the size of Kepler 186f. It is too far away for astronomers to discern its mass, much less whether it has an atmosphere and oceans or if it teems with living creatures.
Nonetheless, since dwarfs are the most plentiful type of star in the galaxy, astronomers are hopeful that Earth twins are plentiful, and that some will be found close by, allowing other telescopes to make temperature and mass measurements or to identify molecules in the atmosphere.
Kepler’s original mission ended last year, with the failure of equipment that kept the telescope precisely pointed, but scientists still have years of work in analyzing the data, which has so far yielded 962 confirmed planets. More than 2,800 planet candidates remain to be studied.
Correction: April 17, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of planet candidates found by Kepler that remain to be studied. It is 2,800, not 3,800.

Traffic Pollution, Noise Linked to Heart Diseases: Study

Exposure to traffic pollution and noise can in the long run lead to atherosclerosis, according to a German study which for the first time explored the links between the two.
The study, which was based on data from the German Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, calculated the long-term exposure to particle pollutants of 4,814 participants who live nearby roads with high traffic volume.
The results were presented at a European Society for Cardiology event in Rome on Thursday (18 April). For the first time, the cardiological study also took account of road traffic noise and its effect on cardiovascular diseases, as recorded by validated tests. The test group's level of atherosclerosis was then evaluated by measurement of vascular vessel calcification in the thoracic aorta by computed imaging. Results showed that in 4,238 subjects small particulate matter and proximity to major roads were both associated with an increasing level of aortic calcification. For every increase in particle volume up to 2.4 micrometres, the degree of calcification increased by 20.7% and went up an extra 10% for every 100 metre of proximity to heavy traffic. 

Traffic noise associated with increased risk of heart attack. The study also found a increase in atherosclerosis associated with night time noise.
Dr Hagen Kälsch from the West-German Heart Centre in Essen said that long-term exposure to fine particle matter air pollution and to road traffic noise are both independently associated with subclinical atherosclerosis. "These two major types of traffic emissions help explain the observed associations between living close to high traffic and subclinical atherosclerosis. The considerable size of the associations underscores the importance of long-term exposure to air pollution and road traffic noise as risk factors for atherosclerosis," Kälsch said.
The association between road traffic and heart disease has been suggested in previous studies. In 2013 a study from Denmark showed that traffic noise was significantly associated with risk of heart attack. For every 10 decibel increase in noise exposure, there was a 12% increased risk, the study found. 

Fine particle matter and traffic noise are believed to act through similar biologic pathways, thereby increasing cardiovascular risk.  They both cause an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system, which feeds into the complex mechanisms regulating blood pressure, blood lipids, and glucose level.